With the success of the motion picture, along with the new
episodes appearing on Comedy Central, South Park has a full
head of steam once again. So it comes as no surprise that Acclaim
is taking advantage of it’s popularity by developing a number of
PC titles based on the television show. We first witnessed a first
person shooter naturally titled South Park. There are also two
other South Park games on the horizon. Just recently released is
South Park: Chef’s Luv Shack. The second is a racing game titled
South Park Rally which isn’t quite ready yet. So without further
ado, let’s take a peek at South Park: Chef’s Luv Shack.

So what’s the premise behind South Park: Chef’s Luv Shack? The
Luv Shack is a game show hosted by Chef that appears on South
Park cable access. A number of sexually attractive swimsuit
models are supposed to compete for the chance to win a romantic
weekend getaway with Chef. Unfortunately for Chef, no swimsuit
models were available, so Cartman, Kenny, Kyle and Stan are
filling in. Obviously Chef has no intention of spending the weekend
with the kids (or at least we hope not), but he still has to invent a
game show for them to play. How do you like that, a trivia game
with a storyline. Well folks, the storyline stops there.

Chef’s Luv Shack begins as you select one of the four South Park
kids as well as the number of rounds you wish to play. After a short
introduction, you begin by choosing a category and answering
questions that pop up. The questions are all multiple choice and
true/false in nature. Correct answers win points, while answering a
question incorrectly will result in points being taken away. As the
rounds progress, the value of a right answer increases. After each
found, the player who answered the last question correctly gets to
choose the next category. From time to time, the player who gets
to select the next category will get a spin on the Wheel of
Fortuitousness. There are also ‘Pressure’ rounds in which players
must respond to a certain number of rapid fire questions in a short
amount of time in order to gain points. Finally, there are also
‘Gameplay’ rounds in which players get to compete for points in
mini games.

Some of the mini games packaged into these ‘Gameplay’ rounds
inlcude: Bees at the Picnic, Chicken Lover, Eat This, Scuzzlebutt,
Go Karts, Spank the Monkey with Mr. Mackey, Bad Kitty, and many
others. Each of these mini games features a number of the famous
characters from the South Park series, including Mr. Mackey,
Jimbo, Ned, Terrance ‘n Phillip and several others. All in all,
there’s a decent variety of mini-games ranging from arcade
classics to original, and just plain silly, games.

The idea behind Chef’s Luv Shack is similar to that of Mario Party,
and while the idea seems pretty appealing, it just fails to deliver
the goods. Being a South Park title, I expected the game to mix a
little humor in with the gameplay, but I was wrong. The questions
aren’t clever, witty, or even consistent. Most of the questions are
regular trivia questions you would find in any other trivia title. I
would have liked to have seen some South Park trivia, or at least
the perverse sense of humor that riddles the television show. The
mini-games are loosely based on retro classics, so while they’re
fun, they’re also simple and incredibly easy to complete.

In terms of presentation, Chef’s Luv Shack is similar to it’s
television counterpart. The graphics and animations are notably
basic in design, yet highly colorful. Fans of the South Park series
won’t be disappointed in terms of the visuals. Chef’s Luv Shack
also features hundreds of soundbytes created specifically for the
game by the usual cast of South Park voice actors. The sounds and
sights of South Park will only get you so far though, especially when
the gameplay lacks the South Park attitude.

Chef’s Luv Shack doesn’t offer much in terms of multiplayer. You
can play with your friends on the same machine, but that’s about
as far as you’ll get. There’s no Internet, LAN, or modem support.
Another gripe I had with the game deals with the commands and
controls. The setup is bizarre in terms of selecting categories and
answering questions. Instead of using arrow type keys in order to
select categories, selecting letters (A,B,C, etc.) would have been
much easier and natural.

It’s got the South Park name, but this just doesn’t seem like a
South Park game. It certainly looks like the South Park characters
but the famous South Park attitude and perverse sense of humor
we all expect just isn’t present much of the time. Diehard South
Park fans will probably be disappointed with this gaming
experience, so if you can avoid it, I suggest you do. It's just not
that much fun.